HARRISBURG — Debate began Wednesday on sprawling pension legislation that the Republican majority in the Pennsylvania Senate has put on a fast track, but Democrats attacked its central money-saving element as unconstitutional and said it would do little to immediately relieve the pain of a $53 billion pension debt.

Primarily, the bill seeks to end the traditional pension system, which covers about 330,000 retirees or beneficiaries, and require concessions from many of the 370,000 current state government and public school employees.

The debate comes as the Senate GOP hopes to make its pension legislation a central part of budget negotiations with Gov. Tom Wolf.

The Senate GOP's bill may not have much road in front of it. Leaders of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives have been noncommittal about it, and Wolf said Wednesday that it lacks fairness. He said he continues to stand by his plan to save $10 billion over 24 years by borrowing money to restructure part of the debt and slashing fees for outside investment managers.

"It does it in a real way without cheating our employees, and I think that should be the test of any pension plan," Wolf said.

Under the Senate Republican plan, the traditional pension benefit would cease to exist for people who are hired or elected in the future. Instead, they would get a 401(k)-style plan — with a 2.6 percent employer contribution for school employees and a 4 percent contribution for state government employees — and a cash balance plan that would earn up to 4 percent interest.

The 410-page plan was introduced Friday and has undergone no committee hearings.

The average annual pension paid to a retired rank-and-file state employee or teacher is about $25,000. Lawmakers, however, have traditionally given themselves a much cushier pension benefit.

Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, has pitched the GOP's legislation as a way to pare down the pension debt and avoid another massive debt by relieving taxpayers of the responsibility to make up for shortfalls stemming from bad pension fund investment performances.

"It restructures a plan for the future, it develops short-term savings ... and, most importantly, it brings security to the (pension) funds that is so desperately needed," Corman said during floor debate.

The plan for benefits concessions from current employees is unlike any that has been tested in court, he insisted.

Under an analysis by the school employees' pension system, the GOP's proposed new benefit would be about one-third of the current pension benefit for a new hire.

Actuaries say most of the bill's $18 billion in projected savings over 30 years arise from concessions it seeks from current employees. It would ask them to pay a bigger portion of their paycheck to keep a pension enhancement authorized in 2001. Those who elect not to pay more would see the pension benefit calculated on their future earnings reduced to the pre-2001 benefit level.

Democrats say courts have already ruled that such benefit reductions go against the state constitution's prohibition against laws that violate contractual obligations.

"So now we're dealing with an illegal piece of legislation and we're dealing with ... projections of savings that will disappear," Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, said. "That's called voodoo economics. That's called mystical math. That's called playing a hoax on the people of Pennsylvania."